967 – Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “One day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ seated me behind him on his mount and confided to me something I shall never disclose to anyone. The spot he preferred for shielding himself when answering the call of nature was a small rise in the ground or a cluster of date palms (that is, an enclosed date-palm grove).”

Muslim narrated this in that concise form. Al-Burqānī, with Muslim’s own chain, added: “He entered an orchard belonging to a man from the Anṣār. Inside was a camel; when it saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ it groaned and tears flowed from its eyes. The Prophet ﷺ approached it and stroked its back—its hump—and the area behind its ears, and it became calm. He then said, ‘Who owns this camel? Whose camel is this?’ A young man from the Anṣār came and said, ‘It is mine, O Messenger of Allah.’ He replied, ‘Will you not fear Allah concerning this animal that Allah has placed in your care? It has complained to me that you keep it hungry and wear it out.’”

Abū Dāwūd also narrated it in the wording reported by al-Burqānī. (The word dhafrah refers to the place behind a camel’s ear where it perspires, and the verb tudʾibuhu means “you exhaust it.”)

968 – Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “Whenever we halted at a campsite we would not offer any voluntary prayers until we had unloaded the saddles.” Reported by Abū Dāwūd with a chain that satisfies Muslim’s conditions.